The primary sources of the Smithsonian document the history of art, culture, music, design, flight, space exploration, science and technology, landscapes and gardens, and native cultures in the United States, as well as the long history of the Smithsonian itself.

Discover archival collections related by topic and/or by names of persons, families, businesses, and organizations regardless of where the collection lives within the incredibly vast resources of the Smithsonian.

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Finding Aids

Archival finding aids, also sometimes called collection guides, are the key to unlocking information in SOVA. Each unique archival collection has a finding aid that provides the user with varying levels of descriptive detail about the collection, such as creator, biographical or historical note, content, subjects, names, forms of materials, how the collection is arranged, the context in which the collection was created, related collections in individual repositories and across the Smithsonian, provenance, where the collection is housed, and how to access the collection. Digitized content from each collection is also accessed via links provided in the collection's finding aid.

Finding aids are essential research and discovery tools that will help you understand the content and context of an individual collection and whether that collection will satisfy your research needs.

Collection consists of reproductions of paintings and photocopies of various documents: newspaper clippings, exhibition announcements and brochures, labels, correspondence, receipts, and contracts. Also includes biographical information and lists of exhibitions.

Biographical/Historical note

Biographical/Historical note

Artists Marjorie and Jerry Gotkin worked in Cape Cod, New York City, and Delray Beach, Fla. Marjorie Gotkin was born in Atlantic City, N.J, in 1925. She died July 6, 1999 in Boca Raton, Fla. Jerry Gotkin was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1936. They were married in 1961. From 1963-1990 they operated Gotkin Art Studio in Manhattan and reopened the studio in Delray Beach, Fla. in 1991. They were represented by the Panoras Gallery in Manhattan for many years.